BADSTUBER AND GÜNDOGAN RETURN TO LÖW’S SQUAD

Badstuber's last appearance for Germany came against Sweden on 16th October 2012

The Germany national team’s first squad of 2015 features 16 World Champions. Joachim Löw has named 20 outfield players and three goalkeepers for the friendly on Wednesday against Asian Champions Australia in Kaiserslautern (20:30 CET) and the EURO 2016 qualifier in Tbilisi against Georgia on Sunday, 29th March (18:00 CEST).

The squad will be led by captain Bastian Schweinsteiger of FC Bayern, who is back in the DFB-Team for the first time since the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina following injuries. “Bastian is our captain, he has tremendous leadership qualities. We need him both on and off the pitch,” said manager Joachim Löw. “Having him back is a huge bonus for us. I’m confident that he can kick on from his good performances in the Bundesliga and Champions League with FC Bayern.”

Badstuber’s last international was in October 2012

Alongside Schweinsteiger, two long-term injured players have also returned to the national team setup: Holger Badstuber (Bayern München) and Ilkay Gündogan (Borussia Dortmund). Badstuber has won 30 senior caps for Germany, with his most recent one coming way back on 16th October 2012 in Berlin during a 4-4 World Cup qualifying draw against Sweden. The Munich man barely kicked a ball in 2013 and 2014 after a cruciate ligament tear and a total of four operations on his knee, but has been playing regular football again since early 2015.

Gündogan currently has eight international caps to his name, with his last one coming on 14th August 2013 in Kaiserslautern during a 3-3 friendly draw against Paraguay. The Dortmund midfielder also scored in that game. Gündogan missed the 2014 World Cup win ongoing back problems. He made his return for BVB on 8th October last year in a Bundesliga meeting with Köln.

Löw “moved to see Holger and Ilkay back on the pitch”

“The pair have a long period of suffering behind them,” said Joachim Löw on returnees Badstuber and Gündogan. “I was moved to see Holger and Ilkay back on the pitch again and I’m impressed at how quickly they have returned to their high standards. It’s remarkable just how well they have dealt with the situation. They have worked hard for months and never lost their optimism, despite a number of setbacks.”

The Germany boss said that they have been called up for a different reason though: “Their involvement in the squad isn’t in recognition of them fighting their way back though; it’s a reward for their recent performances. We’ve always kept in touch with both players. It will be nice to welcome them back to the squad and we can now look to the future with the two of them instead of looking back.

“World Champions against Asian Champions – a great way to kick off 2015”

Mesut Özil (Arsenal) and Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) have also returned to the squad. Both missed the European Championship qualifiers against Poland, Ireland and Gibraltar, as well as the friendly with Spain towards the end of 2014 due to injuries.

The upcoming game against Australia is the fifth meeting between the two nations. Germany have come out on top in three encounters, with the Aussies winning once. Löw has good memories of the 2010 World Cup opener in particular. The DFB-Team won 4-0 against the Socceroos back then in Durban in what was the manager’s first World Cup game in charge of the national team.

A meeting with Paraguay on 13th August 2013 was Gündogan's last Germany game

“World Champions against Asian Champions – it’s a great way to kick off 2015 on the international stage,” said Löw. “The meeting with Australia is also a welcome opportunity for us to get into our rhythm ahead of the important game in Tbilisi against Georgia. I watched a few of Australia’s games at the Asian Cup and I was impressed. They are well organised and very solid. They conceded just three goals in the entire tournament, which speaks for itself. However, we want to give the supporters in Kaiserslautern a good game and pick up some momentum for the Georgia match by winning.”

Germany victorious in every meeting with Georgia

The DFB-Team have won all three of their previous clashes with Georgia. The teams last met on 7th October 2006 in Rostock. Germany won the game 2-0, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Michael Ballack scoring the goals. Former Frankfurt player Kachaber Zchadadse’s side currently sit fifth in the EURO 2016 qualifying group with three points to their name. Meanwhile, Germany are level on points with Scotland and Ireland (7 each), with Poland leading the group (10 points). The group winners and runners-up qualify for the finals together with the best third-placed side of the nine groups. The eight remaining third-placed teams will enter the play-offs with four more spots at the tournament in France up for grabs.

“It’s an unfamiliar situation for us,” said Löw on how things stand in Group D at the moment, “but it’s not a problem. Our sensed are heightened; we know what we have to do and can’t afford any more slip-ups. We want to pick up three points in Tbilisi and that is exactly what we’re demanding of ourselves. I have complete faith that my players are aware of the situation and are capable of dealing with it. We’re confident, but we won’t underestimate Georgia. If we remain serious and show our quality on the pitch then we will come away from Georgia with the win.”

After the games against Australia and Georgia, the DFB-Team will begin their preparations for fixtures in June. Germany will first play a friendly against USA on 10th June in Cologne, before a EURO 2016 qualifier against Gibraltar in Faro on 13th June.

Hummels: "Our performance level dropped in the second half"

Disappointment was the predominant feeling amongst the Borussia Dortmund players after their Champions League exit in the last 16. The team was left with nothing and were beaten quite convincingly, 2-1 in the first leg and 3-0 in the second leg, by Juventus. Borussia Dortmund captain and Germany international Mats Hummels spoke to DFB.de about the team’s exit, missed goal scoring opportunities and the upcoming challenges. 

DFB.de: Mats Hummels, how do you explain the 3-0 loss to Juventus?

Mats Hummels: The first half was okay but in the second half, our performance level dropped. We conceded possession way too easily and too often. We deserved to lose by such an emphatic margin in the end. We know that we simply didn’t play well and deserved to be knocked out. I don’t think that anyone could question how dominant and technically superior Juve were in the second half. We couldn’t get back into the game. 

DFB.de: Did you think that your Champions League campaign would come to an end tonight? 

Hummels: We knew that we could be knocked out. I didn’t imagine beforehand that it would be as a result of such a disappointing second half performance. If the result is documented somewhere in the programme in 15 years time, nobody will remember if we were unfortunate or not to lose. 

DFB.de: Combining the results from both legs, it finished 5-1 on aggregate. Is this proof that BVB currently aren’t good enough for the quarter-finals? 

Hummels: Let’s put it this way: we weren’t good enough to tear the competition apart and really challenge this year. Everybody has seen that. We didn’t play well except for the first half in Turin. The 5-1 aggregate is possibly due to the fact that we had to take some risks to try and get a result. At the end of the day, the end score isn’t important; what matters is that we’ve been knocked out. 

DFB.de: What was the team’s main problem during the game? 

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Hummels: "Our performance level dropped in the second half" 

Hummels: We tried to use a short passing game but also some riskier passes and dribbling moves to break through Juve’s defence. We rarely managed to achieve this though. I think that we also then started to lose our belief. Sometimes we opted to pass instead of going for goal. Once or twice we tried our luck from distance; this is what we were restricted to against a team who defended so deeply. 

DFB.de: How much did conceding an early goal influence the game? 

Hummels: Going 1-0 down early on hurt us. Tevez’s finish was world class! However, the three players around him could have applied more pressure. It’s not every day though that you see such a pure strike. We can’t deny that it was a real shock for us. We had a period of the game afterwards when we could really put them under some pressure but we didn’t create enough goal scoring opportunities. 

DFB.de: How come you couldn’t carve out so many chances? 

Hummels: There are different reasons for this. We didn’t get enough bodies in the box when we had crossing opportunities. It even became tricky to get a shot on goal from distance. I think that there are certain elements of our game that we need to work on. 

DFB.de: After the loss and Champions League exit, how much confidence will the team have going into the upcoming games? 

Hummels: We’ll have to wait and see. You can quickly build and lose self-confidence. We realised this for ourselves when we won in Freiburg after a really poor run of results. At once we regained some self-confidence. It could happen again in Hannover; however, it won’t come easily. We need to work hard for it. 

DFB.de: How sad are you that you won’t feature again in the Champions League for at least another year and a half? 

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Hummels: "Juve were dominant and superior technically" 

Hummels: We’re obviously disappointed; it’s hard to imagine. The Champions League is a fantastic competition which we have thoroughly enjoyed, with the exception of tonight’s game. I have fond memories, particularly of home games. It’s a pity that we won’t be able to be a part of it for a while. It’s down to us to bring Champions League football back to Dortmund.

'Harmless' Dortmund Disappoint Coach Jurgen Klopp

Jurgen Klopp described his Borussia Dortmund side as "harmless" after they failed to register a single shot on target in their Champions League last-16 defeat to Juventus, ​media reports.

Dortmund trailed Massimo Allegri's side 2-1 going into their second leg tie at Signal Iduna Park, but their away goal gave them considerable hope of progressing to the quarter finals.

Instead, the hosts were blown away by their superior opponents who delivered an early sucker-punch through Carlos Tevez' third-minute wonder strike.

Dortmund laid siege to the Bianconeri box for much of the first half but were unable to convert their pressure into chances and eventually succumbed to second-half goals from Alvaro Morata and Tevez again.

​"We were too harmless. If you don't shoot on goal, you can't score," Klopp said.

"We can't blame the ball, because it flew fairly well, as you could see with the goal Tevez scored.

"Every minute the opponent gained in confidence and we ended up having none.

"Juve were simply better than us, but they also had the perfect start after three minutes."

Captain Mats Hummels agreed that Dortmund failed to recover from their early setback, allowing Juventus to dominate the second period and cruise into an unassailable lead.

"The early goal we conceded was surely a shock for us. You can't deny that," Hummels added.

"For almost the entire match we failed to create any noteworthy chances.

"In the second half we completely lost our rhythm and in the end the scoreline was deserved.

"We can't claim that we were at the same level as Juventus."

Borussia Dortmund 0-3 Juventus: Tevez Grabs a Brace as Juve Breeze into the Quarter-Finals

Juventus striker Carlos Tevez scored twice as the Italian Serie A champions comfortably saw past a lacklustre Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion to book their place in the Champions League quarter-finals. 

The visitors took the lead minutes into the game through Tevez, which made Dortmund's task of progressing even harder. Juventus took a 2-0 aggregate lead (1-0 on the night) into the break and their German counterparts showed little signs of getting themselves back into the last-16 clash. 

Borussia Dortmund v Juventus - UEFA Champions League Round of 16

The first-half saw the Old Lady miss several opportunities to double their lead. Stephan Lichtsteiner and Alvaro Morata came close in the opening 45 minutes of action, but Massimiliano Allegri’s side were held to just a solitary goal for their efforts.

After the break, Juventus continued their pursuit to get some daylight between them and Dortmund. Morata and defender Giorgio Chiellini had chances to add the the Italian’s lead, but were wasteful in front of goal when it mattered.

The former did finally tuck away one of his chances, however, in the 69th minute. Morata doubled Juve’s lead mid-way through the second half to all but seal the tie and Dortmund’s fate. Carlos Tevez scored his second of the game and Juventus’ third to seal an impressive away win for the Serie A giants. 

Borussia Dortmund v Juventus - UEFA Champions League Round of 16

Dortmund will be disappointed to have been humiliated in their own backyard, but Juve have shown they could go far in the competition now, and Tevez looks in fine form to get them there.

Kolasinac makes comeback for U23 side

A further step towards his Bundesliga comeback: Sead Kolasinac made his return to Royal Blue colours on Saturday (14/3), featuring in his first competitive game since his cruciate ligament rupture in the match in Hannover at the start of the season.

Kolasinac gained 75 minutes of game time in the Regionalliga derby away to Rot-Weiss Essen but was unable to prevent a 1-0 defeat. A penalty from Baier early on was the difference at the Essener Stadion. The Royal Blues carved out numerous opportunities thereafter but were unable to put the ball into the back of the net. “It’s annoying when you create so many chances away from home and don’t score,” said a visibly disappointed manager Jürgen Luginger after the game.

Kolasinac started at the left side of the defence and swapped with Borgmann in the second half to move forward as an anchorman. Kolasinac had a decent outing until his substitution in the 76th minute for Nietfeld.

Bayern Munich Join PSG In Race To Sign Branislav Ivanovic

German champions Bayern Munich are monitoring developments on the future of Chelsea full back Branislav Ivanovic.

Reports last week claimed the Serbian was attracting interest from Paris Saint Germain ahead of the summer transfer window, though Bayern are now ready to make their interest known too. Manager Pep Guardiola is reportedly ready to offer Brazilian centre back Dante as a possible sweetener in the deal, given he is struggling to break into the team at the moment.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho wants Ivanovic to stay with the club, but speculation is beginning to intensify given the 31-year-old has just 16 months remaining on his current contract. 

The Blues will need to address the future of Ivanovic over the coming months in order to stop clubs being able to negotiate pre-contract terms with the player - given they will be able to do so from January next year.

Kalou Faces Huge Fine for Vandalising Berlin Wall

​In a piece of bizarre yet in some ways unsurprising news that broke this morning, former Chelsea winger Salomon Kalou is reportedly facing a huge fine after being snapped appearing to vandalise the Berlin wall with a hammer and chisel, ​media reporting.

The 29-year-old is currently plying his trade in the city after signing for Hertha Berlin on a season-long loan deal from french side Lille, and the attacker has enjoyed a prolific spell in Germany - scoring 6 times in 12 starts.

However, the Ivory Coast international made the headlines for the wrong reasons on Monday morning after being caught breaking off a piece of the historic monument for himself.

​​The Wall is a protected monument in Germany, having initially been constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in order to divide East and West Berlin, and it did so for 28 years from 1961-1989.

It was granted its protected status upon the fall of the GDR in 1991, and vandalism of the monument carries a heavy fine of up to 10,000 Euros.

Upon seeing the image of Kalou, a deeply offended Kani Alavi - chairman of the artists initiative the East Side Gallery (who reportedly own the copyright to the graffiti on the wall while ever the Wall belongs to the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough of Berlin) - immediately made an official complaint to the police regarding what he branded disrespectful behaviour:

"When I saw the pictures, I almost fell off the couch," Alavi told German Press.

"We have a well-paid celebrity increasing his market value at the expense of a monument. Without respect. And the public television mixes with it. I am deeply disappointed."

"Just because there are no security guards, that does not mean that you can do what you want there. If he had been doing that at the Brandenburg Gate, the player would have been arrested."

Despite demonstrating he's a dab hand with hammer and chisel, Kalou was unable to carve a way through Premier League defences quite so effectively, having averaged under a goal every 3.5 games for in 6 years at Stamford Bridge.